Negative plus 14

This is not about math, it’s about the COVID-19 test kits developed by University of the Philippines scientists. It seems that local health authorities and officials from the World Health Organization have taken the side of extreme caution about endorsing or celebrating the fact that we now have our own “Made in the Philippines” test kits for COVID-19. Based on what I’ve seen and heard during congressional hearings as well as on the news, their view is that the test kits are not one hundred percent fool proof or could be susceptible to “False Negative” or give results that clear a patient of COVID-19 who in fact is actually infected.

I personally appreciate the caution and conservative stance of the expert. However, as the saying goes: “Desperate times require desperate measures” and based on what I’ve heard there is a severe lack of testing kits or that there are no testing kits available to meet the projected demand and whatever is available in private medical facilities will cost anywhere from P20,000 to P80,000. I won’t swear by all that, but in the face of such dire possibilities, the UP developed testing kits gives as some hope. First and foremost the UP developed test kits are estimated to cost P1, 500 and cuts the testing period from 24 hours to two hours. As far as the potential for “False Negative” results,  my premise is we should be more interested in finding the POSITIVE and infected because those are the carriers of COVID-19. As for the potential False Negative, all we need to do is impose a mandatory Plus 14 day quarantine as a safety net.

I know that officials of the DOH are still recovering from the trauma of on-line bashing by paid Epal politicians, trolls and haters over the Dengvaxia vaccine. But considering the fact that all the doomsday prophecies and fear mongering have not come to pass, we should all move on and stop being worried or apprehensive that the test kits might spark another crucifixion. We need to try out the test kits and if necessary on a small population of volunteers. So we can begin to identify and isolate those who are greatly at risk and in need of medical attention and supervision. We won’t know until we try and if the World Health Organization is complaining about widespread INACTION, then they should be the first to find a way to get the UP Test Kits tested on the ground.

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   Speaking of False Negatives, some officials and so-called experts are guessing that COVID-19 will die down or go into remission before the end of the year. That would be nice. But what if it doesn’t? At the moment, a number of people are saying that the Pandemic will force us to rewrite how we live and work and socialize. I would even be bold enough to say that this current disruption might end up propelling or forcing the government and all Filipinos to level up and modernize how they live and work. For the first time, the government is seriously considering 4-day work week, Holiday Economics, experts are talking about Home Schooling as a viable alternative to traditional school based education, Professionals are talking about work from home stations, and because of fears that “cash” or paper currencies can be a carrier of COVID-19 more and more people will have to use credit cards thereby forcing business establishment both big and small to enroll with credit companies to conduct electronic transactions.

The work from home scheme has always been labeled too modern or radical but few have seriously studied the benefits such as less office space and utilities, less human traffic and management in confined spaces, people don’t end up wasting about 25 hours a week commuting to and from work, people are healthier because they are less stressed and less exposed to pollution and traffic. On top of all that parents don’t have to make difficult choices between a career or raising kids because it allows them to do both. The truth of the matter is that we simply don’t like change and risk even if the data tells us that working from home makes sense. One suggestion that the Malacañang and CEOs could consider is to try a one day or two day work from home program instead of the 4-day work week. It would still achieve the volume reduction of people and vehicle traffic, greatly benefit employees and their families and provides government with an actual trial and model for future policies and programs.

As far as Home Schooling is concerned, the DepEd is already working out such programs but what it really needs to do is shift to output and achievements metrics with less and less emphasis on number of school days attended by students. Government and Congress needs to seriously invest billions of pesos in order to shift our education program from a human teacher to and electronic educator and this would not necessarily displace our over worked teachers who do more than just teach. If students have shorter or fewer school days, because of electronic education then everybody is a winner.

Before I run out of space here’s a shout out to BSP Gov. Ben Diokno to please investigate or research why many retailers in the country don’t honor credit cards. They say it’s because of the big surcharge or because the card companies take forever to pay or remit the vendors. Given our problem with the corona virus, we need to address the need for less paper bills and less chances of viral transmission. Lastly, the DICT under Secretary Gringo Honasan needs to crack the whip or push the Telcos to radically improve internet services and quality because it will be the backbone of our new way and new world. Sorry but enough is enough! We need better Internet speed and service and we need it now.

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